


Day 153

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [153]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24516322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Relationships: Tomwise/Feja, Tomwise/OC
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [153]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257





	Day 153

Feja strapped on her leathers and knife belt that morning and set out for Sundermount. It has been years since she had needed to wear armour and the leather pinched in a few places but she was not one to skimp on safety.

Dwarves were not built to climb mountains from the outside, she decided, but she couldn’t afford to higher anyone to be in her stead. The way the elves talked about Sundermount, it sounded like the perfect place to find felandaris: wild, unclaimed by humans and full of spirits and undead. 

Everyone always said that dwarves were uninteresting to demons and spirits and Feja really hoped that was true. Otherwise she might be in for a nasty surprise.

The texts claimed the weed liked to grow in ancient ruins that were being reclaimed by nature, and there were plenty of those on Sundermount. She had no way of knowing which might have what she was looking for, she would be stone cursed before she tried going to the Dalish for help, so she started with the closest one. 

It was darker than the Deep Roads but bridges than a cave. Feja didn’t know how the place managed to have lit candles after two thousand years, maybe the wandering skeletons took care of everything. That would also explain why there was no dust on the floor.

Feja was halfway through the third room when she heard a soft shuffling coming up behind her. Spirits didn’t have feet to make scraping sounds so it was probably a walking corpse. Her poison would be useless but if you cut off of enough body parts the demons possessing them would return to the Fade. Carefully, she unsheathed her daggers and prepared herself to strike. 

Feja took up position next to the door, so that when it swung open she would be hidden behind it. She didn’t know how well couples could hear but she didn’t like to leave things to chance so she held her breath and kept as still as she could.

A gloved hand drifted into view and Feja burst into action. Both daggers came down with the intent of severing the limb at the wrist. Unfortunately her knives met only air, the creature was far faster than any walking corps she had encountered before. 

The corps let out a shriek of surprise, and burst fully into the room. It was an elf or a short human, decked out in black leather and one of the masks that the Coterie used.

The figure drew knives of their own and the two began the deadly dance of the knife duel. It was said that in a knife fight, one goes to the healer, the other goes to the stone. Knives were fast and nearly impossible to block at the best of times. Feja’s opponent had the advantage in reach but Feja was a smaller target. She used her one advantage to its full value, focusing on defence as much as possible. The leathers on both their arms were soon scored by cuts but neither had yet drawn blood. 

Her opponent tried to sneak a blade around Feja’s guard and she used the opportunity to slip inside their defences. She slid on her knees through her opponent’s legs aiming both daggers for the place where the legs met the groin, a weak point on any armour. Her opponent was just fast enough to block with their forearms, and Feja felt her knives slid through leather and into flesh.

Now behind her opponent, Feja tried to put just enough distance between them to maneuver but her enemy surprised her yet again, by sending a mule kick into her back. She felt, as much as heard, the glass in her bag shatter and she had just enough time to wonder in horror which of her flasks it had been before she was enveloped in a cloud of noxious gas. She doubled over and emptied the contents of her stomach onto the stone floor. She would have been helpless against her enemy but she heard them retching behind her, so at least they had been caught in the cloud as well. 

Her attacker pulled off his mask to clear the way for his sickup and she realized that she had been fighting Tomwise. 

“What are you going here?” She demanded. 

“Same as you,” he said. Fair enough. 

“Are you done trying to kill me?” He asked. 

Feja nodded and sheathed her knives. Thomwise did likewise. “I searched the three rooms to the left,” he said. “Nothing.”

“The rooms on the right are also empty,” Feja replied. Thomwise nodded, neither of them gained anything by lying so they might as well trust each other. That was when they heard more shuffling footsteps. 

“Did you come here alone,” Feja Asked. Thomwise nodded. They both drew their weapons again, and prepared for the attack. 

Feja has no poisons to fight corpses but plenty of Grenadines. Thomwise hissed to get her attention and passed her a small flask of clear liquid.

“Put it on your daggers,” he said. “Spirits hate the stuff. It’s the only thing that works on them. Feja did as he suggested, again, he gained nothing by lying. 

When the undead finally came for them they were ready. Feja led with a few exploding flasks and then they charged in with their knives. Feja and Tomwise worked surprisingly well together and they made short work of the monsters. Tomwise’s spirit poison was surprisingly effective. 

When it was all over they stood inside a ring of corpses, dead ones, landing from the exertion.

“Same time tomorrow?” Tomwise asked with a wink.

“There’s another ruin close to where the Dalish camp,” Feja said, wiping the sweat from her brow. “Let’s meet at the entrance. I’ll be happy to show you the proper way to search for felandaris.”


End file.
